


Episode Duscae

by ZulantherWhitefeather



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-06
Updated: 2016-01-14
Packaged: 2018-05-12 04:09:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,874
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5651920
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ZulantherWhitefeather/pseuds/ZulantherWhitefeather
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is just the opening scene from the demo Episode Duscae. If you are interested in the writing, I may just have to write some more! Let me know in the comments if you want! Just have a go at it, see what you think! Enjoy!</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A Very Duscae Morning

Ignis was not surprised that he was the first and only one awake. It seemed to be a recurring thing. With a quiet sigh, he unzipped the corner of the tent flap and took a peek outside, letting the sun’s morning rays shine on his face, creating a glare on his glasses. It was indeed well past time to be up and about, but still his companions laid sleeping. 

He withdrew back into the tent the four men shared, taking his glasses from his face and meticulously cleaning them before replacing them on the bridge of his nose.

The cultured man pulled his smartphone from his jacket pocket and opened the alarm app with a mindless ease that came from weeks of habit. He pressed a button, triggering the alarm to sound, and placed it on the floor of the tent, letting the sound reverberate throughout the small enclosure. 

Prompto was the first to stir. The young blonde man gave a groan of semi-awareness and rolled over onto his back, stepping out of the realm of dreams with ease. After a few groans and smacking of his lips, he gained the momentum to sit up, suddenly awake, ever eager and ready to face the day. 

Gladiolus was the next to join them. With the alarm still sounding cheerily, and perhaps sensing Prompto’s movements, the large man gave a low yawn, lying on his back, arms spread wide as he laid sprawled out in his own corner of the tent. He sounded well rested, at least, which was nice to know. He too sat himself up rather quickly, scratching the back of his head and rolling his neck.

And the forth occupant of the tent only rolled over, his arm over his forehead, still soundly asleep. 

No surprise there. 

No one spoke as they all escaped the haziness of sleep, and Prompto was quick to run his fingers through his styled hair, touching at his bangs and spikes that hung down in front of his ears. 

Ignis knew the silence would end soon - it never lasted long with his companions – and he was right. No sooner had the thought entered his mind, Gladio’s deep voice filled the tent, “Can’t believe somebody wrecked the car,” He said pointedly, obviously referring to the blonde member of their party, making his irritation known. 

And judging by Prompto’s guilty look he shot at the muscled man, he heard the message loud and clear. 

“Unbelievable.” Gladio ended, leaving his thoughts on the matter out in the open.

The blonde gave a weak laugh as he tried and failed to deflect the blame, “Ha, I would hate to be that guy…” Then he tried again, “Aw, come on, don’t be that way,” he pleaded, “You know I didn’t mean to do it.”

Ignis was quick to interject, “Of course not. Sabotage is far beyond you.” Satisfied that he had successfully insulted the younger man’s intelligence, Ignis smiled internally, careful to keep his expression neutral. 

There was a moment of silence after that as Prompto sent a pained look Ignis’s way, with the alarm being the only noise prevalent, before they realized that a fourth voice had not contributed to their conversation. 

Almost in hilariously perfect synchronicity that came from years of the same old truth – that Noctis was always the last one up – they looked over to the sleeping prince. It was expected.

Ignis knew the prince’s body required him to sleep more than the average person due to the strain the crystal put on his body, but regardless, he needed to be awoken. They had a mission after all. Operation: Repair the Regalia was underway. 

The bespectacled man pointedly placed the alarming smart phone right beside the sleeping dark haired man, hoping the closer proximity of the irritating sound might draw him from his sleep, but the only fruit of his labor was in watching the young dark-haired man simply roll over, turning away from the noise. 

“It’s futile.” Ignis sighed hopelessly, as he finally turned the alarm off.

Gladio wasn’t going to give up so easily. He had years of experience in getting Noctis up over the years. The prince hadn’t always been exactly eager to start the day with rigorous training, so Gladio had often provided a little “push” throughout much of their youth. 

Prompto wasn’t going to have any of it. The guy could summon swords out of thin air for crying out loud. No way was he going to touch the guy with a ten foot pole if he could help it. Not after the stories Gladio had told, anyway.

With firm but gentle hands, Gladio patted the prince’s back, a teasing edge in his voice, “Rise and shine, Princess.”

Coincidentally enough, the ground began to shake slightly beneath them, the result of tremors, as Prompto voiced seconds later, “Tremors.” he said shakily, half-joking, “Now you did it.”

“Just call me Titan,” Gladio joked back, his voice playful.

He was finally able to cause Noctis to stir with an unhappy groan and an irritated, “Gah…” making Prompto turn their way as he sat, smiling.

“Morning there, Buddy.” He saluted cheerfully. 

Noctis didn’t bother to reply, still to asleep to even consider it. His eyes remained closed, and his head was down.

“Eyes open.” Gladio ordered in a well-practiced command voice that he often had to defer to in his dealings with the stubborn prince. He watched the younger man hard as Noctis did finally deign to respond by opening his eyes – if only barely. 

“And, he’s up.” Ignis offered pleasantly, half-amused at the spectacle before him.

That finally elicited a response from the groggy prince, “Not… technically… up.” He managed, before he stretched and fell back onto the tent floor, intending to fall right back asleep as Gladio could only watch helplessly. 

How could the kid sleep this heavily? It boggled his mind.

Ignis’s hopeful air deflated, “Not technically having our automobile repaired and heading to Cauthess then?”

As he spoke, Gladio forcibly grabbed a hold of Noctis’s forearm and bodily pulled the skinnier man upright. Then, just because he could, Gladio patted the prince’s cheek in an attempt to get him to wake sooner. Noctis tried to hit his hand away, but his reaction time was dead, and he missed by a long shot. 

“No turning back now your Highness.” Gladio said tiredly, patting Noctis’s shoulder and using him as a lever to stand up, “Time to pay ‘His Enormousness’ a visit. “ And with that, he stepped outside.

“Yeah,” Prompto said somewhat awkwardly, not comfortable with the silence that suddenly filled the tent, “Wonder what it’s like outside.” He hopped up easily and with a devilish streak, he teasingly patted Noctis’s face before retreating outside as well, leaving Noctis to once again swat at nothing but air and growl in irritation at empty space.

“Wow,” Ignis heard Prompto say brightly, “Couldn’t ask for better weather!” He looked over to the prince and couldn’t help but be amused at his sour expression. He was still not fully awake yet. Amazing.

“A good day for walking,” the bespectacled man offered getting up to join his friends outside, but not before giving Noctis a more sincere, and almost apologetic pat on the shoulder. “Aren’t we lucky?”

Noctis then seemed to realize that he was in the tent by himself. With much effort, grumbling, and much squinting of the eyes, he levered himself up slowly and nearly stumbled out of the tent after them, only to be blinded by the ridiculously bright sun that shone in his eyes. The sun had no right to be so bright. Just then, he was really tempted to turn right back around and crawl back into the lazy comfort of the tent, but he knew he wouldn’t get away with it. Why did they all have to be such early risers, anyway?

"Oh, well," he thought to himself as the party looked out across the Duscaen landscape, "might as well get the day started. Like Gladio said, 'No turning back now…'"


	2. Gladio's Got the Plan

After the horrible, grueling experience of actually waking up and joining the land of the living, Noctis had to admit that the day hadn’t started off half-bad. He was a sucker for the outdoors, after all, though Gladio was much more so than himself.

The region of Duscae was undeniably beautiful and it caught the prince’s imagination.

He just wished the sun wasn’t quite so bright.

After the group got the camp site packed up, they hit the road – that is, they hit the grass. They _would’ve_ hit the road had _somebody_ not wrecked the thing. Noctis shot the blond member of their party a sour look. Not that he noticed. Prompto was busy being distracted by pretty much everything around them.

Of course, Ignis would’ve been the one to get straight to business. “We’re well short of the amount due, I’m afraid.” Obviously he expected everyone to know exactly what he was referring to, and that would have been Cindy’s bill for the repairs that were being done to the Regalia.

Gladio jumped on the topic like a dog with a bone, “We need to think bigger.” He said with a smile, “Like Behemoth big.” And he pointed his thumb back in the direction of the gas station where they had seen the reward poster for Deadeye, the Behemoth terrorizing the area.

“Hunting down its horns could get us the money,” Prompto offered skeptically, “If it doesn’t get us killed.”

“Wouldn’t worry,” Noctis consoled as they continued in their walk, “We’re as good as dead without the car, anyway.” Of course, that option didn’t ease the blonde’s worries one bit. It did seem like a drastic consequence, but not necessarily true. Not having the Regalia would just make things _very_ difficult from there on out, so it was ideal to get it up and running again.

Gladio gave a deep scoff of laughter, sounding a bit down in response to Noctis’s dreary outlook, “Might already be a lost cause.”

Sensing the darkening mood of the party, Prompto tried a new strategy, “Hey!” He said optimistically, turning towards his friends as they moved, “If Cindy said she could fix it, that’s good enough for me.”

Noctis wanted to say that Prompto only had so much faith in her because he had a weird crush going on with the female mechanic, but he figured now wasn’t the time.

“Since she’s gone through all the trouble of servicing it nearby, we need only concern ourselves with one thing and one thing alone.” Ignis pointed out eloquently in his accent he couldn’t quite shake.

The group all stopped, looking to Noctis. “The money.” He summarized with a sigh, annoyed and fed up with this whole ridiculous situation. He could already hear the story on the news. _Yeah, yeah, laugh all you want_ , Noctis thought. How ridiculous was it that a filthy rich prince was stranded out in the middle of nowhere scrounging for cash? That’s what he got for forgetting his wallet at home.

“Simple enough. We hock whatever we hunt till we come up with the cash, then fetch the car.”

Damn, Gladio made it seem so easy when he put it like that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know this one is shorter than the last, but have no fear! There will be longer ones!

**Author's Note:**

> If you want any more, just let me know. :) I love these characters and I am pumped for the release this year!


End file.
